On Day 7 of our trip, we woke up to rain in Liverpool. We had plenty of time to get a cab to the train station… but then the taxi we had the hotel call for us was teeny-tiny. We had become accustomed to the big black cabs – so note that if you need one of them, ask for them specifically. Don’t just say “a cab.” Fortunately it all got sorted with enough time for us to make our train, but we had two people, two big suitcases, a stroller, and a baby. Not an unreasonable amount of stuff for a week-long trip, but more than could fit into a compact car where one seat was taken up with a driver. :-/ I panicked and once again Elena proved the stouter traveler than I. But then she didn’t know what was going on.

Fortunately we made our train. No food this time, alas. And it was pretty quiet on the car, so we got out Moana again and we made it to London (direct this time, no transfer) with no problem.

We stayed at a Premier Inn right near Kings Cross but also walking distance from Euston station, which is where we came in. It wasn’t too bad a walk, and of course our room wasn’t ready yet, so we locked our stuff up in their storage and headed back out to look for some food.

St. Pancras New Church was right near our hotel, and it has these gorgeous Caryatids.

We ended up at an Italian chain place that was empty when we got there and we were starving and tired and it hit the spot.

After lunch, we walked over to Kings Cross. Along the way we passed this St. Pancras (hotel):

9 3/4 is somewhere down there:

There is an actual set-up with a wall and a luggage cart where you can take your pic.

But…

Since we got similar pics at the HP studio tour, we didn’t wait in the line. BUT there is an enormous gift shop next door and I did spend some time there.

I also bought some of the Hogwarts Express tickets as gifts, and some clip-on bows because I had a Harry Potter historical party coming up and I wanted to Gryffindor up my regency gown. I got a Slytherin one for Janine as well!

I took this one for Janine as it’s a running joke for us from the Beatles movie Help!. “What are you doing?” “Posting a letter.”

Next we headed back in the direction of the hotel and the British Museum! We cut through this lovely park, with people enjoying the good weather.

Time to see some famous/controversially-acquired art!

Seen at the gift shop – this is totally Hypnotoad, right?

Enormous scarab:

A Greek-style sphinx:

And now we get more controversial – the Elgin/Parthenon marbles. With a baby in front of them.

This cat is famous! The Gayer-Anderson cat.

I studied this tomb in a college class, and we saw an exhibit of it years ago in DC. It’s from the tomb of Queen Puabi. Mesopotamian. There were big death pits, and IIRC, lots of women (who drank poison) were buried with her??

A gold cape found in a grave, from Wales.

Torques

The Lycurgus Cup, late Roman Empire:

By this time, the baby had lost patience and we were just whizzing through on our way to an exit.

The Sutton Hoo helmet. Anglo-Saxon.:

By this time we were pretty exhausted, but still had one big thing on the list. So after a short rest at the hotel to recharge, we dragged ourself out again and took a cab to the one big thing I really wanted to see… Abbey Road Studios and the zebra crossing!